SG: In that I believe the evidence supports essentially a secular founding, I wanted to explore how and why the idea of America's Christian founding came about. I also wanted to explore the role that narrative played in the construction of a national identity, one that persists to this day.

JF: In two sentences, what is the argument of Inventing a Christian America?

SG: I argue that idea of the nation's Christian founding is essentially a national identity myth, constructed by the generations immediately following the constitutional era in an effort to sanctify the founding and give meaning to their hopes and aspirations for the nation's future. As a result, we need to understand the purposeful origins and limitations of the idea of the nation's Christian origins.

SG: Although I considered it in undergraduate school, I did not decide to go to graduate school until I had been practicing law for a few years. I have always been fascinated with the intersection of law, religion, politics and history. I have been fortunate to participate as an advocate on church-state issues, but my true interest is to teach and write in the area from a historical perspective.

JF: What is your next project?

SG: I am at work on a legal and cultural history of the crucial years of modern church-state development (1940s-1960s), tentatively titled: "The Third Disestablishment: Church, State, and American Culture, 1945-1970."